Laura Catoe | Portfolio

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Sometimes, you have to try and realize a vision... to realize that isn't what you want AT ALL. I contract with Kelly Sign Consultants sometimes when she's behind on projects and needs somebody else to do the art. "The Corn Man" as I call him (Kelly knows his real name, but I don't!) wanted a distressed look. We went back and forth a couple of times with emphasis on different phrases:

By the changes we made, I could tell "ah, he doesn't like this. But probably he's not sure why he doesn't like this..." And then the request changed COMPLETELY. He wanted to try a totally different feel...

My UK friend Lesley was making a travel book for her friend Matt (Matt, maps, atlas... so clever, that Lesley!) and needed a cover. Her design instructions were...

He really likes modernism so I was thinking the Bauhaus one for the font/background design but I'd really like to feature earth. I liked the circle with the lines I thought it might be interesting to capture light and dark. I quite like the line design I thought that would be a good pattern for the earth?

And I liked the little plane detail in the black and white one (with the giraffe) I was thinking it would be a nice to have a little plane going around the world. Overall I was thinking a more vibrant colour palette. I've settled on 'Matlas' for the title and the dimensions will be 29x29 cm for a square book.

We merged ideas from the prelims I sent her:

(I actually did that project a year ago and was waiting for an image of the final product. And then forgot. The perils of waiting! Also, this is why my children don't understand my work. And why I had no examples on hand to take when I went to talk to high schoolers interested in graphic design. There are so many files I send where I never see the resulting product.)

To bookend with a more recent project, my doctor has recorded an album of romantic piano songs and needed layouts for the cd insert. She knew just what she wanted, so all I needed to do was format it for her. There was a font she had in mind and I didn't have the name or a copy of it, so while I waited to find out what it was, I dummied something up.

Then when I made changes and corrections, I changed it to her preferred font (but we kept the scripty one for the title):

The bulk of my freelance design work is paginating publications and making marketing materials, but every once in awhile there's a stand-alone project like this. I wonder what other projects 2018 will bring!

Our Childrens' Church coordinator asked if I could make a t-shirt design for the verse James 1:17 (every good and perfect give is from above). I sent a 1-color horizontal design and a multiple color vertical option. (Hey, if anybody Googles for the need of a design like this, shoot me and email and I'll send you the PDF. I mention this because over the years, I've gotten several requests for the Be An Example shirt.)

The pastor of my bro & sis-in-law's church contacted me to work on a logo for their new name after a church merger. They are a Church of the Nazarene and there are guidelines for adapting the national logo to the local level but he also wanted to present his board with a unique-to-them option. We came up with this:

But in the end, the board chose to use the national version. So I just followed the guidelines set forth in the Usage Guide (so useful!) and now they have lots of variations to play with:

The other day, someone inquired whether I could do infographics and I was like "yeah, sure, let me go find an example... oh, I don't have ANY EXAMPLES."

So this isn't a post of anything I've worked on recently. I stopped by the Times and took screenshots of a smattering of maps, charts and infographics I made over the years. (I couldn't find any examples of more text-heavy ones. Those were usually for the Life&Times section and were on archive cds. If those cds turn up, expect another post for posterity like this one.)

Earlier this year, I worked with Tami Brooks & Tourism on a brochure for Etowah Heritage Museum. They didn't have a logo, so we started with that. (When you get a chance to use arrowhead imagery, use it, amirite?)

This year was the inaugural Memorial Day Weekend Boat Parade and tourism needed a logo, poster and a MAP. (Only exciting because for years, locator maps were my bread and butter at the Times. I hardly ever get to make a map anymore.)

There was a Gadsden High reunion this month and the committee wanted to honor all the classmates that have passed.

The background looks like we were going for sepia toned memories. But also, their school colors were orange and black.

And then, pictures of my two youngest that we will pretend is for their portraiture/aesthetic value but might just be because I sometimes miss mommyblogging...

Amy Brown was starting Other Side Ministries and needed some help here and there — like a portrait of herself. We met and wandered a bit downtown until we had one we liked.

A friend had made her a drawing of a boat with a net. (This is where I am TERRIBLE when it comes to Bible verses, because I think it's referencing an instance of being told to fish from the other side of the boat? You should probs ask Amy. :)

Anyway, she needed the drawing to be in vector (we tweaked it a little, can you see where?) and have some text added.

And then she needed a little help getting the WordPress theme set up for her site.

Now, this isn't because she needed an extra portrait in black and white, but just because I believe, when don't you need an extra portrait in black and white?